The Decticus: his Instrument 



is one of the first that mingled the sounds of 

 life with the vague murmuring of inert 

 things. It was singing before the reptile had 

 learnt to breathe. 



This shows, from the mere point of view 

 of sound, the futility of those theories of 

 ours which try to explain the world by the 

 automatic evolution of progress nascent in 

 the primitive cell. All is yet dumb; and al- 

 ready the insect is stridulating as correctly 

 as it does to-day. Phonetics start with an 

 apparatus which the ages will hand down to 

 one another without changing any essential 

 part of it. Then, though the lungs have ap- 

 peared, we have silence, save for the heavy 

 breathing of the nostrils. But lo, one day, 

 the Frog croaks; and soon, with no prepara- 

 tion, there are mingled with this hideous 

 concert the trills of the Quail, the whistled 

 stanzas of the Thrush and the Warbler's 

 musical strains. The larynx in its highest 

 form has come into existence. What will 

 the late-comers do with it? The Ass and 

 the Wild Boar give us our reply. We find 

 something worse than marking time, we find 

 an enormous retrogression, until one last 

 bound brings us to man's own larynx. 



In this genesis of sounds it is impossible to 



257 



